Vulnerable road user (VRU) collision avoidance system

This application claims the benefit of and priority to U.S. provisional application No. 63/228,250, filed Aug. 2, 2021, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

Aspects described herein generally relate to techniques for generating warnings to avoid potential collisions between a vehicle and vulnerable road users (VRUs).

Many vehicles have blind spots, which blocks the ability of the operator of the vehicle to notice hazards at certain areas around the vehicle. In dense urban environments, where for example pedestrians and cyclists often share the road with vehicles, such blind spots represent a serious problem and can lead to grave results. Blind spots may be a particularly severe problem for operators of large vehicles (sometimes referred to as “long haul vehicles”), such as trucks (or Lorries) and public transport vehicles, especially in urban environments.

The term vulnerable road user (VRU) is used mainly to describe those unprotected by an outside shield, as they sustain a greater risk of injury in any collision with a vehicle and are therefore highly in need of protection against collisions with other vehicles on the road. This broad definition can include (but is not limited to) the aforementioned pedestrians as cyclists, as well as roadway workers, a person operating a wheelchair or other personal mobility device, whether motorized or not, a person operating an electric scooter or similar, and a person operating a bicycle or other nonmotorized means of transportation. Motorcycle operators can also be considered VRUs due to their lack of vehicle enclosure and higher risk of injury in a collision.

Due to the high number of injuries experienced by VRUs, there has been interest in increasing safety and introducing regulations aimed to protect them. This includes the recently proposed United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) regulation ECE151, the most recent publication at the time of this writing being found at https://unece.org/sites/default/files/2021-08/R151am2e.pdf, and which requires a blind spot information system (BSIS) to inform a driver of a possible collision with a VRU. Such new regulations are typically directed at so-called “long” vehicles, which may include a category of large vehicles such as lorries, trucks, tractor-trailers, etc., and which frequently have dimensions defined by statute or regulation. For purposes of this description, a long vehicle is a vehicle that given standard side mirrors (or even special mirrors in particular cases), exhibits a dead spot in at least one area around the vehicle, which blind spot possesses a risk for an object the size of a pedestrian or any other VRU, say a blind spot in the order of 1.5 times (or 2 times or 1.25 times, etc.) the size of an adult man. The risk can be especially severe in turns, where due to their length, long vehicles tend to make wide arcs, and if a VRU is in the blind spot of the long vehicle during the turn, the long vehicle operator may not be able to notice the VRU at the critical moment and run over the VRU.

Current systems to warn drivers of potential VRU collisions, such as those required by such new proposed regulations, are inadequate. For instance, to pass the ECE151 regulation requirements in particular requires that a system know a theoretical future collision point, which requires knowing a turning point in advance. But because such information is not typically readily available for conventional vehicular systems, conventional blind-spot monitoring systems provide a warning at all times a few seconds before every theoretical collision point, which also includes when driving in a straight line and when a theoretical collision is not possible, e.g. when the layout of the road and/or current lane occupied by the vehicle prevents a turning maneuver. This results in the generation of many false positive warnings, which risks desensitizing drivers.

The exemplary aspects of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. The drawing in which an element first appears is typically indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the corresponding reference number.

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the aspects of the present disclosure. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the aspects, including structures, systems, and methods, may be practiced without these specific details. The description and representation herein are the common means used by those experienced or skilled in the art to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures, components, and circuitry have not been described in detail to avoid unnecessarily obscuring aspects of the disclosure.

illustrates a vehicleincluding a safety system(see also) in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. The vehicleand the safety systemare exemplary in nature, and may thus be simplified for explanatory purposes. Locations of elements and relational distances (as discussed herein, the Figures are not to scale) are provided by way of example and not limitation. The safety systemmay include various components depending on the requirements of a particular implementation and/or application, and may facilitate the navigation and/or control of the vehicle. The vehiclemay be an autonomous vehicle (AV), which may include any level of automation (e.g. levels 0-5), which includes no automation or full automation (level 5). The vehiclemay implement the safety systemas part of any suitable type of autonomous or driving assistance control system, including AV and/or an advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS), for instance. The safety systemmay include one or more components that are integrated as part of the vehicleduring manufacture, part of an add-on or aftermarket device, or combinations of these. Thus, the various components of the safety systemas shown inmay be integrated as part of the vehicle's systems and/or part of an aftermarket system that is installed in the vehicle.

The one or more processorsmay be integrated with or separate from an electronic control unit (ECU) of the vehicleor an engine control unit of the vehicle, which may be considered herein as a specialized type of an electronic control unit. The safety systemmay generate data to control or assist to control the ECU and/or other components of the vehicleto directly or indirectly control the driving of the vehicle. However, the aspects described herein are not limited to implementations within autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles, as these are provided by way of example. The aspects described herein may be implemented as part of any suitable type of vehicle that may be capable of travelling with or without any suitable level of human assistance in a particular driving environment. Therefore, one or more of the various vehicle components such as those discussed herein with reference tofor instance, may be implemented as part of a standard vehicle (i.e. a vehicle not using autonomous driving functions), a fully autonomous vehicle, and/or a semi-autonomous vehicle, in various aspects. In aspects implemented as part of a standard vehicle, it is understood that the safety systemmay perform alternate functions, and thus in accordance with such aspects the safety systemmay alternatively represent any suitable type of system that may be implemented by a standard vehicle without necessarily utilizing autonomous or semi-autonomous control related functions.

Regardless of the particular implementation of the vehicleand the accompanying safety systemas shown inand, the safety systemmay include one or more processors, one or more image acquisition devicessuch as, e.g., one or more vehicle cameras or any other suitable sensor configured to perform image acquisition over any suitable range of wavelengths, one or more position sensors, which may be implemented as a position and/or location-identifying system such as a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), e.g., a Global Positioning System (GPS), one or more memories, one or more map databases, one or more user interfaces(such as, e.g., a display, a touch screen, a microphone, a loudspeaker, one or more buttons and/or switches, and the like), and one or more wireless transceivers,,.

The wireless transceivers,,may be configured to operate in accordance with any suitable number and/or type of desired radio communication protocols or standards. By way of example, a wireless transceiver (e.g., a first wireless transceiver) may be configured in accordance with a Short-Range mobile radio communication standard such as e.g. Bluetooth, Zigbee, and the like. As another example, a wireless transceiver (e.g., a second wireless transceiver) may be configured in accordance with a Medium or Wide Range mobile radio communication standard such as e.g. a 3G (e.g. Universal Mobile Telecommunications System—UMTS), a 4G (e.g. Long Term Evolution—LTE), or a 5G mobile radio communication standard in accordance with corresponding 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) standards, the most recent version at the time of this writing being the 3GPP Release 16 (2020).

As a further example, a wireless transceiver (e.g., a third wireless transceiver) may be configured in accordance with a Wireless Local Area Network communication protocol or standard such as e.g. in accordance with IEEE 802.11 Working Group Standards, the most recent version at the time of this writing being IEEE Std 802.11™-2020, published Feb. 26, 2021 (e.g. 802.11, 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.11p, 802.11-12, 802.11ac, 802.11ad, 802.11ah, 802.11ax, 802.11ay, and the like). The one or more wireless transceivers,,may be configured to transmit signals via an antenna system (not shown) using an air interface. As additional examples, one or more of the transceivers,,may be configured to implement one or more vehicle to everything (V2X) communication protocols, which may include vehicle to vehicle (V2V), vehicle to infrastructure (V2I), vehicle to network (V2N), vehicle to pedestrian (V2P), vehicle to device (V2D), vehicle to grid (V2G), and any other suitable communication protocols.

One or more of the wireless transceivers,,may additionally or alternatively be configured to enable communications between the vehicleand one or more other remote computing devicesvia one or more wireless links. This may include, for instance, communications with a remote server or other suitable computing system as shown in. The example shownillustrates such a remote computing systemas a cloud computing system, although this is by way of example and not limitation, and the computing systemmay be implemented in accordance with any suitable architecture and/or network and may constitute one or several physical computers, servers, processors, etc. that comprise such a system. As another example, the remote computing systemmay be implemented as an edge computing system and/or network.

The one or more processorsmay implement any suitable type of processing circuitry, other suitable circuitry, memory, etc., and utilize any suitable type of architecture. The one or more processorsmay be configured as a controller implemented by the vehicleto perform various vehicle control functions, navigational functions, etc. For example, the one or more processorsmay be configured to function as a controller for the vehicleto analyze sensor data and received communications, to calculate specific actions for the vehicleto execute for navigation and/or control of the vehicle, and to cause the corresponding action to be executed, which may be in accordance with an AV or ADAS system, for instance. The one or more processorsand/or the safety systemmay form the entirety of or portion of an advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS).

Moreover, one or more of the processorsA,B,, and/orof the one or more processorsmay be configured to work in cooperation with one another and/or with other components of the vehicleto collect information about the environment (e.g., sensor data, such as images, depth information (for a Lidar for example), etc.). In this context, one or more of the processorsA,B,, and/orof the one or more processorsmay be referred to as “processors.” The processors may thus be implemented (independently or together) to create mapping information from the harvested data, e.g., Road Segment Data (RSD) information that may be used for Road Experience Management (REM) mapping technology, the details of which are further described below. As another example, the processors can be implemented to process mapping information (e.g. roadbook information used for REM mapping technology) received from remote servers over a wireless communication link (e.g. link) to localize the vehicleon an AV map, which can be used by the processors to control the vehicle.

The one or more processorsmay include one or more application processorsA,B, an image processor, a communication processor, and may additionally or alternatively include any other suitable processing device, circuitry, components, etc. not shown in the Figures for purposes of brevity. Similarly, image acquisition devicesmay include any suitable number of image acquisition devices and components depending on the requirements of a particular application. Image acquisition devicesmay include one or more image capture devices (e.g., cameras, charge coupling devices (CCDs), or any other type of image sensor). The safety systemmay also include a data interface communicatively connecting the one or more processorsto the one or more image acquisition devices. For example, a first data interface may include any wired and/or wireless first link, or first linksfor transmitting image data acquired by the one or more image acquisition devicesto the one or more processors, e.g., to the image processor.

The wireless transceivers,,may be coupled to the one or more processors, e.g., to the communication processor, e.g., via a second data interface. The second data interface may include any wired and/or wireless second linkor second linksfor transmitting radio transmitted data acquired by wireless transceivers,,to the one or more processors, e.g., to the communication processor. Such transmissions may also include communications (one-way or two-way) between the vehicleand one or more other (target) vehicles in an environment of the vehicle(e.g., to facilitate coordination of navigation of the vehiclein view of or together with other (target) vehicles in the environment of the vehicle), or even a broadcast transmission to unspecified recipients in a vicinity of the transmitting vehicle.

The memories, as well as the one or more user interfaces, may be coupled to each of the one or more processors, e.g., via a third data interface. The third data interface may include any suitable wired and/or wireless third linkor third links. Furthermore, the position sensorsmay be coupled to each of the one or more processors, e.g., via the third data interface.

Each processorA,B,,of the one or more processorsmay be implemented as any suitable number and/or type of hardware-based processing devices (e.g. processing circuitry), and may collectively, i.e. with the one or more processorsform one or more types of controllers as discussed herein. The architecture shown inis provided for ease of explanation and as an example, and the vehiclemay include any suitable number of the one or more processors, each of which may be similarly configured to utilize data received via the various interfaces and to perform one or more specific tasks.

For example, the one or more processorsmay form a controller that is configured to perform various control-related functions of the vehiclesuch as the calculation and execution of a specific vehicle following speed, velocity, acceleration, braking, steering, trajectory, etc. As another example, the vehiclemay, in addition to or as an alternative to the one or more processors, implement other processors (not shown) that may form a different type of controller that is configured to perform additional or alternative types of control-related functions. Each controller may be responsible for controlling specific subsystems and/or controls associated with the vehicle. In accordance with such aspects, each controller may receive data from respectively coupled components as shown invia respective interfaces (e.g.,,,, etc.), with the wireless transceivers,, and/orproviding data to the respective controller via the second links, which function as communication interfaces between the respective wireless transceivers,, and/orand each respective controller in this example.

To provide another example, the application processorsA,B may individually represent respective controllers that work in conjunction with the one or more processorsto perform specific control-related tasks. For instance, the application processorA may be implemented as a first controller, whereas the application processorB may be implemented as a second and different type of controller that is configured to perform other types of tasks as discussed further herein. In accordance with such aspects, the one or more processorsmay receive data from respectively coupled components as shown invia the various interfaces,,,, etc., and the communication processormay provide communication data received from other vehicles (or to be transmitted to other vehicles) to each controller via the respectively coupled linksA,B, which function as communication interfaces between the respective application processorsA,B and the communication processorsin this example. Of course, the application processorsA,B may perform other functions in addition to or as an alternative to control-based functions, such as the image processing functions discussed herein to detect VRUs and to detect possible collisions with detected VRUs, as well as provide warnings regarding such possible VRU collisions.

The one or more processorsmay additionally be implemented to communicate with any other suitable components of the vehicleto determine a state of the vehicle while driving or at any other suitable time. For instance, the vehiclemay include one or more vehicle computers, sensors, ECUs, interfaces, etc., which may collectively be referred to as vehicle componentsas shown in. The one or more processorsare configured to communicate with the vehicle componentsvia an additional data interface, which may represent any suitable type of links and operate in accordance with any suitable communication protocol (e.g. CAN bus communications). Using the data received via the data interface, the one or more processorsmay determine any suitable type of vehicle status information such as the current drive gear, current engine speed, acceleration capabilities of the vehicle, etc. As another example, various metrics used to control the speed, acceleration, braking, steering, etc. may be received via the vehicle components, which may include receiving any suitable type of signals that are indicative of such metrics or varying degrees of how such metrics vary over time (e.g. brake force, wheel angle, reverse gear, etc.). Any of these various metrics may be used in addition to or instead of the other techniques as discussed herein to ensure that the generated warnings with respect to potential collisions with a VRU are more relevant. For instance, warnings may be suppressed if the vehicleis currently reversing or if the steering angle does not result in the vehiclecrossing into a bike lane within a threshold period of time or distance. Moreover, the vehicle componentsmay include any suitable number and/or type of components that may issue a warning to warn the driver of the vehicleof an imminent collision with a VRU to avoid the collision, as further disused herein. This may include any audio components, visual components, or combinations of both such as an in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) system that issues such a warning.

The one or more processorsmay include any suitable number of other processorsA,B,,, each of which may comprise processing circuitry such as sub-processors, a microprocessor, pre-processors (such as an image pre-processor), graphics processors, a central processing unit (CPU), support circuits, digital signal processors, integrated circuits, memory, or any other types of devices suitable for running applications and for data processing (e.g. image processing, audio processing, etc.) and analysis and/or to enable vehicle control to be functionally realized. In some aspects, each processorA,B,,may include any suitable type of single or multi-core processor, microcontroller, central processing unit, etc. These processor types may each include multiple processing units with local memory and instruction sets. Such processors may include video inputs for receiving image data from multiple image sensors, and may also include video out capabilities.

Any of the processorsA,B,,disclosed herein may be configured to perform certain functions in accordance with program instructions, which may be stored in the local memory of each respective processorA,B,,, or accessed via another memory that is part of the safety systemor external to the safety system. This memory may include the one or more memories. Regardless of the particular type and location of memory, the memory may store software and/or executable (i.e. computer-readable) instructions that, when executed by a relevant processor (e.g., by the one or more processors, one or more of the processorsA,B,,, etc.), controls the operation of the safety systemand may perform other functions such those identified with any of the aspects described in further detail below. This may include, for example, controlling the operation of the safety systemand/or performing VRU detection, collision detection, warning generation, etc., in accordance with any of the aspects as discussed herein.

A relevant memory accessed by the one or more processorsA,B,,(e.g. the one or more memories) may also store one or more databases and image processing software, as well as a trained system, such as a neural network, or a deep neural network, for example, that may be utilized to perform the tasks in accordance with any of the aspects as discussed herein. A relevant memory accessed by the one or more processorsA,B,,(e.g. the one or more memories) may be implemented as any suitable number and/or type of non-transitory computer-readable medium such as random-access memories, read only memories, flash memories, disk drives, optical storage, tape storage, removable storage, or any other suitable types of storage.

The components associated with the safety systemas shown inare illustrated for ease of explanation and by way of example and not limitation. The safety systemmay include additional, fewer, or alternate components as shown and discussed herein with reference to. Moreover, one or more components of the safety systemmay be integrated or otherwise combined into common processing circuitry components or separated from those shown into form distinct and separate components. For instance, one or more of the components of the safety systemmay be integrated with one another on a common die or chip. As an illustrative example, the one or more processorsand the relevant memory accessed by the one or more processorsA,B,,(e.g. the one or more memories) may be integrated on a common chip, die, package, etc., and together comprise a controller or system configured to perform one or more specific tasks or functions. Again, such a controller or system may be configured to execute the various to perform functions related to VRU detection, collision detection, warning generation, etc. as discussed in further detail herein, to the control of the state of the vehicle in which the safety systemis implemented, etc.

In some aspects, the safety systemmay further include components such as a speed sensor(e.g. a speedometer) for measuring a speed of the vehicle. The safety systemmay also include one or more accelerometers (either single axis or multiaxis) (not shown) for measuring accelerations of the vehiclealong one or more axes, and additionally or alternatively one or more gyro sensors, which may be implemented for instance to detect if the vehiclemakes a turn or change lane, which may be used to generate the warning in various driving scenarios as discussed further herein. The safety systemmay further include additional sensors or different sensor types such as an ultrasonic sensor, a thermal sensor, one or more radar sensors, one or more LIDAR sensors(which may be integrated in the head lamps of the vehicle), digital compasses, and the like. The radar sensorsand/or the LIDAR sensorsmay be configured to provide pre-processed sensor data, such as radar target lists or LIDAR target lists. The third data interface (e.g., one or more links) may couple the speed sensor, the one or more radar sensors, and the one or more LIDAR sensorsto at least one of the one or more processors.

Data referred to as REM map data (or alternatively as roadbook map data), may also be stored in a relevant memory accessed by the one or more processorsA,B,,(e.g. the one or more memories) or in any suitable location and/or format, such as in a local or cloud-based database, accessed via communications between the vehicle and one or more external components (e.g. via the transceivers,,), etc. Regardless of where the REM map data is stored and/or accessed, the REM map data may include a geographic location of known and non-transient landmarks that are readily identifiable (e.g., by the safety systemor similar ADAS systems) in the navigated environment in which the vehicletravels, such as road signs, lampposts, road marks, etc. The location of the landmarks may be generated from a historical accumulation from other vehicles driving on the same road that collect data regarding the appearance and/or location of landmarks (e.g. “crowdsourcing”). Thus, each landmark may be correlated to a set of predetermined geographic coordinates that has already been established. Therefore, in addition to the use of location-based sensors such as GNSS, the database of landmarks provided by the REM map data enables the vehicleto identify the landmarks using the one or more image acquisition devices. Once identified, the vehiclemay implement other sensors such as LIDAR, accelerometers, speedometers, etc. or images from the image acquisitions device, to evaluate the position and location of the vehiclewith respect to the identified landmark positions and in-between landmarks. For example, ego motion obtained from processing of a plurality of images can be used to determine the location of the vehicle and certain locations of the vehicle. Ego-motion signals from sensors on board the vehicle or from images tend to show a cumulative drift, and is thus used in REM in conjunction with the landmarks (that are associated with a predefined location) to correct for ego-motion errors. This configuration is used to maintain localization error at a level that is suitable for AV/ADAS control functions.

Furthermore, the vehiclemay determine its own motion, which is referred to as “ego-motion.” Ego-motion is generally used for computer vision algorithms and other similar algorithms to represent the motion of a vehicle camera across a plurality of frames, which provides a baseline (i.e. a spatial relationship) that can be used to compute the 3D structure of a scene from respective images. The vehiclemay analyze the ego-motion to determine the position and orientation of the vehiclewith respect to the identified known landmarks and in-between landmarks. Because the landmarks are identified with predetermined geographic coordinates, the vehiclemay determine its position on a map based upon a determination of its position with respect to identified landmarks using the landmark-correlated geographic coordinates. Doing so provides distinct advantages that combine the benefits of smaller scale position tracking with the reliability of GNSS positioning systems while avoiding the disadvantages of both systems. It is further noted that the analysis of ego motion in this manner is one example of an algorithm that may be implemented with monocular imaging to determine a relationship between a vehicle's location and the known location of known landmark(s), thus assisting the vehicle to localize itself. However, ego-motion is not necessary or relevant for other types of technologies, and therefore is not essential for localizing using monocular imaging. Thus, in accordance with the aspects as described herein, the vehiclemay leverage any suitable type of localization technology.

Thus, the REM map data is generally constructed as part of a series of steps, which may involve any suitable number of vehicles that opt into the data collection process. For instance, Road Segment Data (RSD) is collected as part of a harvesting step. As each vehicle collects data, the data is then transmitted to the cloud or to another suitable external location as data points. A suitable computing device (e.g. a cloud server) then analyzes the data points from individual drives on the same road, and aggregates and aligns these data points with one another. After alignment has been performed, the data points are used to define a precise outline of the road infrastructure and of the drivable paths or target trajectories. Next, relevant semantics are identified that enable vehicles to understand the immediate driving environment, i.e. features and objects are defined that are linked to the classified data points. The features and objects defined in this manner may include, for instance, traffic lights, road arrows, signs, road edges, drivable paths, lane split points, stop lines, lane markings, etc. to the driving environment so that a vehicle may readily identify these features and objects using the REM map data. This information is then compiled into a roadbook map, which constitutes a bank of driving paths, semantic road information such as features and objects, and aggregated driving behavior.

A map database, which may be stored as part of the one or more memoriesor accessed via the computing systemvia the link(s), for instance, may include any suitable type of database configured to store (digital) map data for the vehicle, e.g., for the safety system. The one or more processorsmay download information to the map databaseover a wired or wireless data connection (e.g. the link(s)) using a suitable communication network (e.g., over a cellular network and/or the Internet, etc.). Again, the map databasemay store the REM map data, which includes data relating to the position, in a reference coordinate system, of various landmarks such as items, including roads, water features, geographic features, businesses, points of interest, restaurants, gas stations, etc.

The map databasemay thus store, as part of the REM map data, not only the locations of such landmarks, but also descriptors relating to those landmarks, including, for example, names associated with any of the stored features, and may also store information relating to details of the items such as a precise position and orientation of items. In some cases, the REM map data may store a sparse data model including polynomial representations of certain road features (e.g., lane markings) or target trajectories for the vehicle. The REM map data may also include stored representations of various recognized landmarks that may be provided to determine or update a known position of the vehiclewith respect to a target trajectory. The landmark representations may include data fields such as landmark type, landmark location, etc., among other potential identifiers. In some embodiments, the REM map data may also include non-semantic features including point clouds of certain objects or features in the environment, and feature point and descriptors.

The map databasemay be augmented with data in addition to the REM map data, and/or the map databaseand/or the REM map data may reside partially or entirely as part of the remote computing system. As discussed herein, the location of known landmarks and map database information, which may be stored in the map databaseand/or the remote computing system, may form what is referred to herein as “REM map data” or “roadbook map data.” Thus, the one or more processorsmay process sensory information (such as images, radar signals, depth information from LIDAR or stereo processing of two or more images) of the environment of the vehicletogether with position information, such as GPS coordinates, a vehicle's ego-motion, etc., to determine a current location and/or orientation of the vehiclerelative to the known landmarks by using information contained in the roadbook map. The determination of the vehicle's location may thus be refined in this manner. Certain aspects of this technology may additionally or alternatively be included in a localization technology such as a mapping and routing model.

This may allow a great deal of flexibility with respect to the type of data that may be used to perform intelligent warning generations as discussed herein with respect to VRUs. For instance, the map databasemay additionally or alternatively store lane information, sometimes referred to as lane assignment information, which may be referenced with a current position of the vehicleto identify, for example, whether the current lane may be used (legally or physically) to turn at the next intersection. The map databasemay additionally or alternatively include information that may be crowdsourced from other vehicles driving on the same road, which may then be aggregated and used to identify useful metrics such as average vehicle turning radii at specific intersections or other suitable locations. In this way, the host lane of the vehiclemay be utilized to determine whether a turn is permissible for the vehicle's current lane and, if so, the average turning radius used by other drivers. As one example, the warnings may be generated in an improved manner using this information to ensure better compliance with the ECE151 regulation, which identifies the turn radius as one of the parameters for regulatory compliance.

The safety systemmay implement a safety driving model or SDM (also referred to as a “driving policy model,” “driving policy,” or simply as a “driving model”), e.g., which may be utilized and/or executed as part of the ADAS system as discussed herein. By way of example, the safety systemmay include (e.g. as part of the driving policy) a computer implementation of a formal model such as a safety driving model. A safety driving model may include an implementation of a mathematical model formalizing an interpretation of applicable laws, standards, policies, etc. that are applicable to self-driving (e.g., ground) vehicles. In some embodiments, the SDM may comprise a standardized driving policy such as the Responsibility Sensitivity Safety (RSS) model. However, the embodiments are not limited to this particular example, and the SDM may be implemented using any suitable driving policy model that defines various safety parameters that the AV should comply with to facilitate safe driving.

For instance, the SDM may be designed to achieve, e.g., three goals: first, the interpretation of the law should be sound in the sense that it complies with how humans interpret the law; second, the interpretation should lead to a useful driving policy, meaning it will lead to an agile driving policy rather than an overly-defensive driving which inevitably would confuse other human drivers and will block traffic, and in turn limit the scalability of system deployment; and third, the interpretation should be efficiently verifiable in the sense that it can be rigorously proven that the self-driving (autonomous) vehicle correctly implements the interpretation of the law. An implementation in a host vehicle of a safety driving model (e.g. the vehicle) may be or include an implementation of a mathematical model for safety assurance that enables identification and performance of proper responses to dangerous situations such that self-perpetrated accidents can be avoided.

A safety driving model may implement logic to apply driving behavior rules such as the following five rules:

It is to be noted that these rules are not limiting and not exclusive, and can be amended in various aspects as desired. The rules thus represent a social driving “contract” that might be different depending upon the region, and may also develop over time. While these five rules are currently applicable in most countries, the rules may not be complete or the same in each region or country and may be amended.

As described above, the vehiclemay include the safety systemas also described with reference to. Thus, the safety systemmay generate data to control or assist to control the ECU of the vehicleand/or other components of the vehicleto directly or indirectly navigate and/or control the driving operation of the vehicle, such navigation including driving the vehicleor other suitable operations as further discussed herein. This navigation may optionally include adjusting one or more SDM parameters, which may occur in response to the detection of any suitable type of feedback that is obtained via image processing, sensor measurements, etc. The feedback used for this purpose may be collectively referred to herein as “environmental data measurements” and include any suitable type of data that identifies a state associated with the external environment, the vehicle occupants, the vehicle, and/or the cabin environment of the vehicle, etc.

For instance, the environmental data measurements may be used to identify a longitudinal and/or lateral distance between the vehicleand other vehicles, the presence of objects in the road, the location of hazards, etc. The environmental data measurements may be obtained and/or be the result of an analysis of data acquired via any suitable components of the vehicle, such as the one or more image acquisition devices, the one or more sensors, the position sensors, the speed sensor, the one or more radar sensors, the one or more LIDAR sensors, etc. To provide an illustrative example, the environmental data may be used to generate an environmental model based upon any suitable combination of the environmental data measurements. Thus, the vehiclemay utilize the environmental model to perform various navigation-related operations within the framework of the driving policy model.

The navigation-related operation may be performed, for instance, by generating the environmental model and using the driving policy model in conjunction with the environmental model to determine an action to be carried out by the vehicle. That is, the driving policy model may be applied based upon the environmental model to determine one or more actions (e.g. navigation-related operations) to be carried out by the vehicle. The SDM can be used in conjunction (as part of or as an added layer) with the driving policy model to assure a safety of an action to be carried out by the vehicle at any given instant. For example, the ADAS may leverage or reference the SDM parameters defined by the safety driving model to determine navigation-related operations of the vehiclein accordance with the environmental data measurements depending upon the particular driving scenario. The navigation-related operations may thus cause the vehicleto execute a specific action based upon the environmental model to comply with the SDM parameters defined by the SDM model as discussed herein. For instance, navigation-related operations may include steering the vehicle, changing an acceleration and/or velocity of the vehicle, executing predetermined trajectory maneuvers, etc. In other words, the environmental model may be generated using acquired sensor data, and the applicable driving policy model may then be applied together with the environmental model to determine a navigation-related operation to be performed by the vehicle.

Again, as a general matter of safety as well being the goal of other proposed regulatory requirements such as the UNECE proposed ECE151 regulation, it is desirable to detect and issue adequate warnings upon detecting a potential collision between the vehicleand a VRU. However, current techniques to warn driver's regarding VRUs only calculate the position of the VRU in the front of the vehicle, and thus provide a warning only when an imminent collision is detected. Therefore, these current systems fail to meet the safer guidelines required by the ECE151 regulation. As further discussed herein, the embodiments address these issues by providing more relevant and intelligent warnings regarding potential VRU collisions.

For example, such collisions may occur when an aforementioned long vehicle makes a right or left turn (or otherwise shifts laterally) across a designated bicycle lane. Thus, the aspects described herein function to warn a driver of a vehicle(which may comprise such an aforementioned long vehicle) regarding an impending collision with a VRU to prevent these and other types of collisions. This may include detecting a potential collision using one or more onboard vehicle sensors such as LIDAR, RADAR, acquired images, etc., to detect and classify an object as a VRU, which may include image processing techniques from acquired images as further discussed herein. Once the VRU is identified, the position and speed of the VRU relative to the vehiclemay be computing using any suitable techniques, including known techniques. For example, metrics such as a lateral distance and/or longitudinal distance between the vehicleand the VRU may be determined based upon the onboard vehicle sensor data.

A potential collision between the vehicleand the VRU may then be computed for a future time period based upon the metrics meeting any suitable threshold conditions (e.g. the lateral and/or longitudinal distances being less than respective thresholds). Moreover, if these conditions are met, a projected future time period for a potential collision may then be computed based upon these metrics using the current speed of the vehicle, the speed and position of the VRU with respect to the vehicle, and information specific to the vehicle such as the aforementioned turning radius. Further by way of example, to guarantee safety, in any potential collision determination a worst case scenario can be used for a response time period. Thus for example, instead of assuming that the VRU (say an e-bike) maintains constant speed during a response time (the time between detection of the VRU and the application of the proper response), it may be assumed that the VRU accelerates (or brakes or steers, depending on the scenario) at a maximum rate. The maximum rate can be predefined, and may depend for example on the type of VRU (for example, a pedestrian, a cyclist, etc.) The maximum rate can be such that it is intended to reflect a typical (maximal) behavior of a typical object of this type.

If the future time period for the potential collision is less than a defined threshold time period, then the vehiclemay generate a warning or, as further discussed herein, execute other actions such as causing the vehicleto perform a navigational change to prevent or further delay the potential collision. Thus, the aspects as described herein function to satisfy the requirement so the ECE151 regulation, which requires such warnings to be issued for specific types of vehicles with respect to blind spot detection of VRUs. Furthermore, the aspects as described herein function to improve upon the use of conventional systems that meet regulatory requirements by providing more relevant warnings by leveraging the REM map data, as further discussed herein.

It is noted that the aspects as described herein are not limited to this particular example, and any suitable number and/or type of metrics may be used to determine if and when a warning needs to be generated to the driver of the vehicleand/or to cause a navigational change in the vehicle. Thus, although the aspects described herein are described with reference to the metrics implemented via the ECE151 regulation, this is by way of example and not limitation, and any suitable set of metrics and/or scenarios may be used to trigger the issuance of a warning to the driver of the vehicleand/or to cause a navigational change in the vehicle, in addition to or instead of those identified in the ECE151 regulation.

With respect to specific regulatory requirements, the ECE151 regulation as noted herein requires specific types of vehicles to provide a warning to the driver if the VRU can be impacted within a future predetermined threshold time period, which is currently defined as the next 4 seconds as of the time of this writing. Thus, the 4 second threshold is used as an example, although the aspects described herein may be adapted to any suitable threshold to determine if a warning or other suitable action is needed. For example, the ECE151 regulation provides in Section 5.3.1.4 as follows (current proposal as of this writing):

5.3.1.4. The BSIS shall give an information signal at last point of information, for a bicycle moving with a speed between 5 km/h and 20 km/h, at a lateral separation between bicycle and vehicle of between 0.9 and 4.25 metres, which could result in a collision between bicycle and vehicle with an impact position 0 to 6 m with respect to the vehicle front right corner, if typical steering motion would be applied by the vehicle driver.

The information signal shall not be visible before the first point of information. It shall be given between the first point of information and the last point of information.